Featuring members of Finnish Black Metal royalty (True Black Dawn, and …And Oceans, to name two). Accelerated Death Impulse is a striking debut, and it’ll be interesting to see if AntiHuman Industries continues to album number two; for now, though, this album isn’t fucking around.

I used to think that Industrial Black Metal started and stopped with Aborym. Give me shit, I don’t care. I now know that there are numerous bands under the banner of that sub-genre, so yeah, I’ve been educated. AntiHuman Industries is as cold as the name sounds. I love their take on Industrial Black Metal and hopefully will hear more from them in the future.

That being said, they’re painting the walls with blood on “Loop of Cosmic Horror”, a merciless display of violence overpowered with battering drums and a guitar tone that sizzles like acid on bare skin. “Error: Human” is nihilistic as they come; the clinical level of extremity is palpable as AntiHuman Industries carve out furrows in your eardrums.

“Brain Noise” sounds kind of familiar… like the chord progression sounds like, and forgive me if I’m wrong, it sounds like “Towards the Pantheon” from In the Nightside Eclipse, but if it was played the way that Crionics covered “The Loss and Curse of Reverence”… at least that’s what I’m hearing. I don’t know about you. This is my experience, haha!

OK, so next track “Eerie Curiosity” is full-on guts-fucking Black Industrial Metal. That’s it. Put your head in a cement mixer, and you’ll get the physical feeling of this nightmarish song. The production on Accelerated Death Impulse is pretty fat; it hits hard when the moment calls for it, which is the whole goddamn album, honestly.

The title track is suitably raw, mirroring the sound that 1349 had on Liberation, the godly blasting reaches levels of unbridled ecstasy, and it’s followed by “Renounce-Resist-Revolt”, which has a mix of the True Black Dawn from the Blood for Satan album and Disciplin on Anti-Life. It shakes furiously, shrieking in reckless abandon.

“A.H.I. (Syndicate Dolls)”, is a magnificent My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult/Electric Hellfire Club Industrial, ichor-pumping dance track (yeah you read that right). “Lucid Dream” is like “Lucid Fairytale” if Napalm Death were Black Metal, it’s short and white hot fast.

Final track “Grief” is accurate to the stages one goes through. Some lovely female vocals start it off and it burns for a few seconds as it gathers intensity and then there’s the discharge and it’s full speed ahead, take no fucking prisoners.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Accelerated Death Impulse and if you love True Black Dawn, 1349, Crionics or E.H.C. you need to get this bastard of humanity now!

Throw in the fact that the members have been involved with Saor, arguably Scotland’s biggest black metal exports, and other bands I enjoy like Fuath and Ruadh, and I’m truly baffled that I haven’t been all over these guys.

As you have probably gathered, Cnoc an Tursa play a form of Scottish-themed, atmospheric, pagan/folk black metal that, of course, will appeal to Saor (though no pipes here, though there is a smattering of keyboards and acoustics), but also that very British/Irish/Scottish black metal sound played by the likes of Winterfylleth, Wodensthrone, and, of course, Primordial.

After the introductory number “Na fir Ghorma”, the album gets off to an absolutely rip-roaring start with “The Caoineag”, and I mean fucking rip-roaring. It’s one of my favorite album opening songs of the year (along with “Geisterflug” by Atronos) and just a downright, killer melodic black metal track that would have Vallendusk blushing. Throw in some raspy shouted vocals, nice pagan sways, an epic mid-paced bridge, and some female vocals from Karinne Tursa (she appears a few times on the album), and you have a fucking high bar for the rest of the album.

Now, the rest of the album is pretty solid, but of course, they never reach the perfect peak of “The Caoineag”. And truth be told, I had to force myself to stop simply playing that track over and over, and actually get to the rest of the album.

Tracks where Karinne Tursa appears, like the mid-paced “Baobahn” and the more urgent “Address to the Devil”, got my attention a little more, but there’s still a lot to like all over the album; the steady militant march of “Cailleach and the Guardians of the Seven Stones”, the sweeping majesty of “Am Fear Liath Mòr”, the Immortal/Abbath-ish gallop of “Alba in my Heart”. It’s all very clean, elegant, and enjoyable.

But still, my finger kept creeping towards the back button throughout.  It’s not as bad as the 90s, when you heard one song on MTV or Headbangers Ball and rushed out to buy the CD only to discover that the rest of the album sucks. This is still a good album, with a great song on it.

Hubris isn’t going to rewrite the Black Metal blueprint anytime soon, but that’s just fine. Acts of Sedition is a satisfying album, a meat and potatoes Black Metal album as it should be.

From the first track, “Call to Sedition”, they get right down to business. Most of Acts of Sedition hovers around the world of Gorgoroth/ Ov Hell territory, and since those bands are basically one and the same (by way of King Ov Hell from Gorgoroth). Anyway… they’re talented musicians, no doubt about that.

“Lightless Lantern” rips straight out of the gate with an ice-cold arsenal of riffs alá 1349, early Immortal style. Pretty fucking cool, and yes, there are some killer riffs to be heard. Melkorpse is the main vocalist (they’re all listed as vocals, but he’s the head dude), and his voice box must be fucking shredded after shows.

Savagery is unleashed with “Incantation of Death”, followed by “Boil of Humanity” with an intro slightly reminiscent of the first couple Reign of Erebus albums. I mean, there are beat downs, and then there are Buffalo, NY Black Metal beat downs and Hubris aren’t fucking around. The title track? Holy shit that’s the good stuff right there, like the riffs are on an Adderall speed ball… fucking excellent.

“Era of Hubris” has this crazy-cool center that’s incredibly enjoyable. “Pissed on Ambitions” is a full-speed-ahead instrumental that reminds me of “Violent Generation” by Brutality.

“The Great Division” and “Outer Space Satanic Torture: Hymn to Nuit in the Abyss” round out the last two, and of course, they take it out with a bang.

Hubris doesn’t appear to be conceited, as their name would imply, and Acts of Sedition is, indeed, a humble release. It wears its influences on its sleeves and there’s nothing wrong with that. Like I said, they’re not going to reinvent the Black Metal wheel, but they elevate the genre with Acts of Sedition. If you like the bands, I’ve mentioned then you’ll be over the moon for Hubris. Get this album now!

Fellow scribe Frank Rini said he would punch me if I didn’t quote him regarding this fantastic new offering from international mutilators (but mostly from Jerusalem/ Bethlehem, having relocated to the much more accepting Netherlands to avoid religious intolerance); I’m talking about Melechesh. Who did you think I was talking about? Nile?

Yes, you read that correctly: Melechesh have a triumphant EP called Sentinels of Shamash, and it is a fucking whopper. Having released their last album Enki back in 2016(!) I first heard them on their Djinn album back in 2001, and they followed that with the powerhouse albums Sphinx and the blistering hell of Emissaries. I don’t know what happened between 2016 and now. I’m not going to speculate about it… the result is Sentinels of Shamash, so I don’t care what they did for the last ten years. Maybe they played Cricket, who knows.

If you can’t already tell by the general tone of this review, I fucking love this new EP! It’s a culmination of the sounds from each individual album rolled into one brutal bastard. They come out swinging with the fiery first track, “The Seventh Verdict”, and it’s all there. Those riffs that skin you alive like a sandstorm, a Bedouin beat down if I may be so bold. The drums are AK-47 machine guns raised in defiance of tyranny, an epic 6:32-minute death roll. This mid-paced brutalizer throws you in the abattoir from the opening riff.

Melechesh in 2026 is a force to be reckoned with. The core members are back together: Melechesh Ashmedi (vocals), Lord Curse (drums), and Moloch (guitars), proving that they are the leading name in Mesopotamian Blackened Death Metal.

“In Shadows, In Light” is a complex maze of Black Metal torment (see what I did there). There’s a HUGE Behemoth breakdown at the 2:26 point that is absolutely massive, and then there’s yet another chord progression that spins your head 360 like Regan in the Exorcist. The solo at 4:10 is a banshee’s wailing call, then the song entwines you in its coils, it gets thoroughly thrashing as Melechesh heads for the conclusion of this maniacal track. The vocals are full of hatred and bile; it’s like that ten-year span didn’t even happen.

Finally, the last track, “Raptors of Anzu” blasts like Blackbraid, only there’s a venom to their delivery that Blackbraid could only imagine having in their arsenal. This song just sounds like it could be playing while a fucking Falcon rips off some poor bastard’s face. Deftly switching tempos from Black Thrash to shredding Black Metal, and the breakdown at the 4:59 mark is just chef’s fucking kiss.

Holy fucking shit, I can’t get enough of this EP. If this is what Melechesh has in mind going forward, I’m here for it! For the fans of Rotting Christ, Dimmu Borgir, and Blackbraid and anyone else, fuck it… Just go get this EP already. What are you waiting for?

I found out about Darkthrone through the classic Transilvanian Hunger; picked up from an Albuquerque bookstore, used. It wasn’t some hole-in-the-wall store either; no lit candles guided my way, nor were there Goth girls.

That was 1994, and the Black Metal gods were smiling on me. I immediately wanted everything from them, and I was able to get my fiendish little paws on Panzerfaust, Ravishing Grimness, The Underground Resistance, and anything else this savage Nordic horde spewed forth from Necrohell Studios.

This is their 22nd full-length, and I fucking love it! Here’s something I noticed over the course of its 41:07-minute runtime. This is Darkthrone’s Black Album. Hear me out before you call for my crucifixion. The last few albums have been leading to this point: Eternal Hails……, Astral Fortress, and It Beckons Us All.

The Black Album (Metallica’s seminal 1990 release that skyrocketed the band to obscene heights) showed them slowing down and getting way heavier in a “Thing that Should not Be”, “Harvester of Sorrow” sort of vein. So why am I comparing this new Darkthrone album to Metallica’s bestselling album? In a word… maturity.

There’s a level of ambience on a Darkthrone album that’s new to me. Pre-Historic Metal is a menacing, pitch fucking black Norwegian Troll striding across the icy mountains. From the count-in on “They Found One of My Graves”, a Black Thrash number that will have your head banging so hard your brain will be sloshing around in your skull. It’s that good, and Fenriz adds some interesting fills, keeping it thrashy with not a blast beat in sight.

The title track bursts along with suitable speed and ferocity. Nocturno Culto’s voice is gritty and… older. Older than time? Not that old, but it’s got the weight of years behind it, so semi-old. “Siberian Thaw” has a bit of a “Quintessence” feeling to it; there’s a cool part where it’s all slow and brooding, and then the song bursts forth like a demon baby from an infected womb.

“Deeply Rooted” is more of a ‘standard’ Darkthrone track and throws back a bit to Hate Them and Sardonic Wrath. ‘Standard’ because it seethes with barely contained hatred and bile, so you know… a Darkthrone song.

It’s funny how in the press release it says “for fans of Darkthrone”… like no shit, you don’t say? But it’s funny because you’ll have a mountain of Darkthrone impersonators, bands who stick to the formula: Esoctrilihum, Embers Of Ouroboros, and An Autumn for Crippled Children. But at the end of the day, there’s only one Darkthrone.

“The Dry Wells of Hell” and “So I Marched to the Sunken Empire” are my favorites on Pre-Historic Metal. They crawl and writhe across the sound waves, fat and smelling of suffering and Brimstone. Especially the latter, which is utterly frightening in how good it is, bringing in some reminiscent memories of Thorns, Arcturus, and later Ulver.

“Eat Eat Eat Your Pride” is a raucous, abandon sort of track, a bit punkish and angry as a swarm of wasps with rabies, also has Fenriz doing his best Mercyful Fate-era King Diamond voice. The song even has a Don’t Break the Oath vibe. But it is closer “Eon 4” that shocked the ever-stinking shit out of me. It’s a light, ambient journey, a trip through Hell, and it’s Darkthrone at their most vicious since “Snø og granskog (Utferd)” from the mighty Panzerfaust album.

Out of their recent releases, this is by far my favorite. It’s a culmination of decades of Black Metal mastery and shows why these fuckers are at the top of their game. I don’t know if the comparison to the Black Album was made clear, because this could also be mentioned in the same sentence with Satyricon’s Age of Nero or Now, Diabolical, and not be out of place at all.

With stellar production, this is a Darkthrone album for the ages. So I wholeheartedly recommend it to keep the heat at bay this summer. Horns up!!

This is a quirky album. It is its own best friend. Some parts are super fucking depressing, parts where you’ll boogie till you puke, and then parts where you just feel alive. So, how is it a Black Metal album? I’ll speculate on that in a second.

It’s Punky as fuck on the opening track “Space Heater”, like Reverend Horton Heat on meth. Hyper as an un-medicated child with ADHD, it’s bold and brash and doesn’t give a shit what your mom thinks. “Ærlig Talt” reminds me of Björk and her vocals with the Sugarcubes; hell, even on her own, she’s an angel. The song has a sense of whimsy and positivity (they could be singing about slaughtering kittens for all I know; it’s in Norwegian).

“Stellar Suicide” is a perky Goth chick in a sundress, but when Twin Serpent goes dark, they go pitch fucking black. So the song jangles and bangles along all the while begging for your attention. It’s also the single from True Norwegian Blackgrass, oh, the wonders of insanity! “Freak Flag” is one of my favorite tracks, “come join the dark side, come to the cool side”! I fucking love it, and it’s all delivered in this delicious homage to American Bluegrass.

But this is ‘True Norwegian Blackgrass’… how is this album, with no blast beats whatsoever, barely any distortion, and absolutely zero mention of Satan; how can this be a Black Metal album? Very carefully, if you understand the core beliefs of the Black Metal movement. These are lyrics about love and loss (“Ain’t Home No More”), the epic breakup song where the guy coldly states, “you’ll die alone”. Fucking heartbreaking and savage as hell. “Hundromshelvete” is just fun as fuck, like the whole album is fantastic but it’s little bits like an electrified banjo pulling off some deadly solo licks that get the redneck in me doing something like dancing.

“Tusen Takk” is this drawly, lazy as fuck until the 1:13 when the song sits up and yells at its kids to shut the fuck up. “Radiophobia” has this apocalyptic Nick Cave vibe to it, and that’s another reason why I like this album so much. It has that Tom Waits awkward and off-kilter time signatures that laugh in the face of all convention, and that, goddammit, is what makes this a Black Metal album.

There’s songs that give me the willies. “Forventninger” is just wilding with itself. Around the 1:40 point, there’s a badass little break, blink, and you’ll miss it, but it’s killer. “Holy Ghost” has a revival spirit to it, a bit of Nick Cave once again leaks in, giving it a confidence boost. “Kipu Kivi” is a haunting track. Creepy banjo against these almost chanted vocals, Hanna Fauske has moments where she sounds like Björk, and this is one of those times.

Closer “Anti-Nation Blues” erupts in spurts (clean out your minds, ya pervs) at times being quiet and resistant to hysterics, but a second later it’s just fucking chaos and the baby is out with the bathwater.

Final verdict is that I fuck heavily with this album, I became friends with it, we smoked bowls together, and cuddly shit like that. If you think this is up your tree, it just might be. Especially if you’re a fan of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tom Waits, and Roy fucking Clark. Get this album and line dance in your front yard just to piss off your HOA!

Original bassist/vocalist Cronos has been keeping things going, and the band itself, with Rage on guitars and Dante on drums, has remained stable for over 15 years. I love the first four Venom albums. Welcome to Hell, Black Metal, At War with Satan, and Possessed were all monumental in the merging of NWOBHM with a style that Venom started, called Black Metal. After Possessed, the band never reached the heights of those albums, releasing lackluster albums with no memorable staying power. Venom has remained a cult phenom and I was lucky to see them at MDF years ago; however, due to the band not doing tours in the USA, they have remained, still more of an underground entity. I feel that if the band had released good albums over the last several decades and had been touring, we might have seen Venom touring with the likes of Slayer, Exodus, etc, you name it. But major acts are not going to take out non-touring artists. Facts.

Knowing how Venom’s last albums have been, I was not expecting much from this 13-song, 43-minute-long album. The first single released months ago was “Lay Down Your Soul”. Going into the song with zero expectations, and I mean zero, considering the band had not put out anything good in four decades, this song knocked me on my ass. Going all the way back to their Welcome to Hell debut, this song brought back the raw NWOBHM and Black Metal that the band created. Galloping madness with an extraordinary lead riff and super catchy chorus with lyrics tying into their earlier works…’Lay Down Your Soul…To the Gods Rock and Roll’. The music is updating the original Venom sound, and the song is fast and has excellent guitar solos to boot. Cronos sounds like a man rejuvenated, and he sounds flawless on this. I even played their original four albums back to back and then played this song, and honestly, this song could have been on any one of those tunes. It is that excellent.

We can rewind to the song opener, the title track. With its atmospheric buildup, the song quickly gets into the speed with organic and well-timed double bass drums. True headbanging moments and some pinch harmonics as well. This song takes their 80’s sound and gives it a bit of a facelift. We even have some cool guitar harmonies happening on here. The NWOBHM ever-present sound, which helped define Venom, is all over this sucker.

Before I get into another song, let’s speak about the album cover. Seemingly, AI-generated, keyboard killaz out there are already panning this album and other albums using AI imagery. I have been roped into some online battles recently, and I told these punks it’s up to the band to use the art they wanna use. Now, if you wanna be a purist and not listen to the music or drag down the band, because of the art they are using, then that is your fucking loss. I only draw the line when it comes to the music. AI is being used for music, which I am not supportive of. Anyway, the AI imagery of the Devil is ok, but if you have the album through Apple Music the cover is interactive with the Devil’s head moving and opening its mouth. I was looking at this at night, and it’s pretty creepy. Love it. Off soapbox now.

“Man & Beast” is a slow cruncher of a tune, and with the guitar slide and the song title being gang shouted, it is perfect and the perfect song to put in the middle of their live set. One of the catchiest songs the band has ever recorded. This is also one of the heaviest songs Venom has ever written. I can see the band and fans headbanging in unison while the song is being played live. The song gets into a quicker gallop, over the guitar soloing, before getting back into that catchy beat. Terrific song.

“Kicked Outta Hell” is a nice, cheeky number with an excellent opening guitar moment, then traversing to an all-out thrash assault. The song slows back down, and this song has 1982 Venom written all over it. The song picks up the pace with the song title being screamed out. There are tempo shifts galore, with excellent mid-paced and fast moments sprinkled throughout the song. The repetitive nature keeps the song catchy and memorable. There are a lot of other terrific songs on the album, and the brooding “Unholy Mother” closes out the album with catchy bass lines. Memorable synths and a doomy song overall. This is a very cool song to close out the album. Live, I am unsure how it would go over. On a recording, it’s great, but it may lose the focus of the crowd.

If Venom’s prior output, after Possessed was anything close to Into Oblivion, I feel there would have been demands for them to tour and bands taking them out. This would have translated into the Venom name being spoken in the same breath as let’s say Slayer, etc., Exodus, Testament, etc.. This album sounds as if it could have been released after Possessed. With its strong ties to their 80’s legendary sound and the strong songwriting on this album, this album is the top of my list for 2026. To hear the band return to form with such a strong album, this sucker smokes other new 2026 albums, of their long-time brethren – I am looking right at you, Exodus. Venom – welcome back for Devil’s sake and thank you, thank you, for welcoming us all back to your Hell!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, since their debut, they have released a couple more albums with Shrines to the Warhead , Black Frost Fallout,  and their last album, Survival, back in 2013, but I never got around to hearing those for som reason. Then the band took a bit of a hiatus, only dropping a few singles over the last 13 years.

But here we are on a new label, with a new album. I had to go back and check out the debut, and it’s still an icky, oozing affair that hits the spot. And fans will be happy to hear that not much has changed in the Highgate camp.

The trio still delivers a blackened sludge/doom mix that taps into a blacker Crowbar or Negative Reaction, Primitive Man, Cough, Eyehategod, Wolvhammer, Beldam, etc. But one thing that jumped out to me was the new shiny, but still neurotic, fuzzed-out production, which is immediately apparent on the crawling, loping opening throes of the first track, “Terraforming Hell”, before it briefly transforms into a feral, snarling black metal gallop.

Other than the killer production, there are still the pained howls and blackened rasp of the vocals of the Porter brothers, the throbbing bass, and ample, droning, drawn-out moments of tense, paranoia-inducing atmospheres. But the emphasis is still heavily geared towards fuzzy, festering crawls that make you itch and squirm, not the warmer fuzzy stylings of their more stoner-y cousins.

The likes of “Deceiver”, the almost 10-minute spiral into dread, “The Writhing Dawn”, or the perfectly titled closer “At Paranoia’s Poison Door”, will have your teeth falling out and your skin festering as you scratch and twitch like a meth addict having the DTs.

To be honest, watching kids grow up from afar is probably more my speed anyway – and it can be a real mind-fuck of an experience! When you’re only seeing your friends’ and families’ kids every few months (let alone years!), you miss all the subtle growth and daily changes that brought them to where they are now. Instead, you just get these big ol’ jumps where they literally become entirely different people every time you see them. Oh they used to like dinosaurs? Well now they like trains. Get ready to hear everything there is to know about the Union Pacific Big Boy articulated 4-8-8-4 locomotive,  the largest and heaviest steam locomotive ever developed. But also be ready to talk about dinosaurs because no one ever gets bored of dinosaurs.

THE POINT IS, it often takes a bit for someone to develop their actual identity – time to experience and try new things, figure out what you really like and don’t actually like at all to figure out what really makes you, you. Case and point, take a look at Scotsman James McBain and his body of work with Hellripper. The project started out in life with the basic identity of, “I’m gonna play guitar really fast and write songs about the devil and evil shit.” And it was fine! McBain has always had a knack for a really good riff, and his ability to write catchy, no-frills club bangers that encouraged crowd participation and interaction has never been in question, to the point that the growth of the “Goat Kvlt” on an international stage was no joke. Tracks like “Full Moon Witchery, “Bastard of Hades,” and the fan favorite “All Hail The Goat” were all good for a quick hit of thrashing, ripping blackened speed metal for the sake of all things \M/METAL\M/. But if I’m being honest, most earlier work was a sort of “here for a good time, not for a long time” affair. A sort of one-trick-pony that was super fun in the moment, but fairly easily moved on from and forgotten about in the long term. A band I’d gladly go see live, but wouldn’t spend a TON of time becoming invested in.

That all started to change with 2023’s Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags. The killer riffs that were always Hellripper‘s trademark were still there, of course, but McBain also started to inject a lot more substance into his music, crafting an overall sound and experience that were uniquely his. First, he really started to embrace his Scottish roots by putting creatures and entities of Scottish folklore and legend front and center in his songwriting (look no further than “The Nuckelavee” and “Mester Stoor Worm” as prime examples), and even included an awesome bagpipe cameo on the album’s title track just to bring the point home (quite literally). But even more noticeably, McBain started to expand his songwriting to become far more dynamic, going beyond the surface-level impact of fast-and-furious quick-hitters and instead offering a fully-fleshed, fully realized listening experience with a lot more lasting power. It was, and still is one of my favorite albums of that year, and indeed of this decade so far, setting quite the bar for McBain to try and match, let alone top.

As usual, I’ve beat around the bush plenty – so I’ll just say it: Coronach is Hellripper‘s finest work yet. McBain hasn’t missed a beat, and instead has set a whole new benchmark for what’s possible with this project. It fucking rips. It’s so good.

True to form, this album wastes no time getting right into action – with “Hunderprest” galloping straight out of hell’s gate with a lightning storm of excellent Blackened Thrash riffs. Where before a good Hellripper riff was, in essence, just that – McBain is continuing to up his game, offering more and more stacked, harmonized riffing for a full, rich sound that keeps you coming back to pick apart more and more layers with every listen. And the insane riffs just keep piling up one after another! In days past, “Hunderprest” would probably come to an end around the 2:30 minute mark after the song’s second reprise. Here and now, we’re met with a distorted, disturbing piano decrescendo, before McBain blasts open yet another blistering, ultra-blackened riff – this time backed by a pummeling blast beat that sounds every bit as chaotic and evil as hell’s seventh layer. This all serves as a bridge into the first of this album’s awe-inspiring solo sections, where McBain puts his full chops on display – the sort of soloing built on having had a steady diet of Kirk Hammet and Dave Mustaine in your musical development. Not that it should have been in any question, but it’s a stark reminder of the level of musicianship we’re actually working with here, even if often overlooked or underappreciated.

What strikes me most about this era of Hellripper is the sense of balance McBain is able to maintain throughout the course of the album. Tracks like “Kinchyle (Goatkraft and Granite)” and “Blakk Satanik Fvkkstorm” prove that, despite some of the maturity and growth that has taken place, the unbridled fun and sadistic joy that has been the core of the Hellripper experience is still alive and well. I’d hate to ever see a version of this band where these kinds of tracks didn’t exist, and McBain seems just as happy as ever to provide them – the latter in particular really just leaning fully into the bit with an anthemic, balls-to-the-walls Black ‘n’ Roll attack that just brings a dumb smile to your face. The former is just a straight-up Thrash heater, complete with a simple, gang vocal’d chorus that will be a huge crowd pleaser, and the kind of Maiden-inspired melodies that can’t help but get under your skin and make you wanna don your battle jacket and throw horns wildly in the air. It’s an instant Hellripper classic sure to be a staple of every live gig moving forward.

On the other end of the spectrum, the midpaced, piano-intro’d “The Art of Resurrection” provides listeners with a welcome change of pace and added depth – dripping with blackened atmosphere and more infectious, anthemic sing-along moments that show McBain really has his audience first and foremost in mind in his songwriting process. Even in it’s blackened drear, there’s an uplifting, almost triumphant air to the song that seems to show McBain flexing his muscles, expressing the sort of confidence needed to rip out yet another of his brilliant solos – this one not so much reaching virtuoso status, but instead showing a level of understanding and restraint for what works with this track, another sign of McBain’s growth as a songwriter. The complexity of this one is carried over into the next, with “Baobhan Sith (Waltz of the Damned)” featuring the kind of turn-on-a-dime time pace changes and collection of riffing and solo work that will leave you dizzied, but certainly impressed. The stretch beginning around the 2:50 mark is one of Hellripper‘s finest, featuring an attack of galloping guitars that practically snapped my neck in three places when I found myself needing to headbang along with demented glee. The track rounds out with an unusually pretty (yes, I said pretty) close with mighty, gorgeous guitars backed by the tweeting of… songbirds? McBain is painting a picture of finding one’s self in the middle of a foggy Scottish wood, and I’m absolutely here for it. It once again points to McBain’s willingness to stretch out the boundaries of what’s possible from the band, finding himself within the project and who he is as a songwriter. It’s brilliant.

This far in, I won’t bog you down any more than I already have to wax poetic about the album’s final two tracks, “Mortercheyn” and title track “Coronach.” Simply put, they’re two of the better tracks McBain has put together through the history of this project – the latter being the sort of Blackened Heavy Metal opus that should grab the attention of every self-respecting Heavy Metal fan on the planet (and we get more bagpipes! Give me all the fucking bagpipes). It’s a brilliant end to a brilliant album that has brought Hellripper‘s game to a whole new depth. I’ve considered myself a fan of this band for a long time (even if from afar), but Cornonach makes me feel like that neglectful godparent who now shows up to gigs and tells everyone in sight about how he knew them as “wee lads” and always knew they were going to blow up into the juggernaut they are today. It’d be an outright lie, but fuck it – the unearned pride I feel for this band’s development is no less real and I’m holding on to it. It’s about time the world get to see what McBain and Hellripper can do, and I hope they take over the goddamn planet.

As I said in my review of Nazghor’s A World Ablaze, I’ve been digging what the reactivated Solistitium Records has been laying down, so I thought I’d check out the 6th album from this act, which was formed by Cryptic Wintermoon‘s ‘Nachtsturm’ and joined by long-time member Iskharian on vocals, and recent addition, Tyrann on bass.

What we have is a very Scandinavian-sounding black metal album, with less German…’quirk’. It’s a frosty, brittle, tremolo-picked assault of wintery salvos, with some Dark Funeral, Istapp, and early Ulver (especially some of the bass lines)/Abigor/ Emperor vibes. It’s raw, but clean and has some light atmospheres and keyboards here and there- but not quite full-on symphonic black metal, or as full-on melodic black metal as Cryptic Wintermoon, but somewhere in between.

The songs on the album are apparently all old or rearranged songs, finally given a ‘professional’ production at Nightside Audio Studio (Eis, Istapp), but they all have excellent riffs that will please fans of the genre.

After a primal, savage start, “Daemmertage” settles into a really nice melodic blast at the 2:45 ish mark, and from there on in, I’m fully into it. Riffs in the likes of galloping “Auf Alten Pfaden”, the crystalline fury of “Die alte Mühl’ im wilden Wald”, all hit that Nordic, frosty, foresty black metal itch.

The middle of the album wanders into a bit of a lull with “Im Nachtenschein” and “Wenn dereinst der Berg rief”, but the closer “Winterland / Alle hernach” is a gloriously majestic, almost Christmas-y, more full-on symphonic black metal track, ending the album on a solid high note

The main man is Ghramm, and according to Metal Archives, he plays “everything”. So there ya go. As far as album lengths go, I reviewed Esoctrilihum, and that album was an hour and a fucking half long. This record is a shorty, running thirty-one and fifty-six minutes without losing any neck-snapping moments.

How is it? Pretty fucking good. It’s not Emissaries. It’s raw and dirty, full of sand and grit; it suffers a bit from the one-man lack of quality control, as most songs stick to the four-minute mark; this is fine for this type of album. Starting with the blistering “La’anat Al-Woujoud (لعنة الوجود)”, the production is wafer-thin, definitely a dude in a basement with a four-track quality. It’s unapologetically raw. It’s almost Graveland-ish on “Wahat Al-Shouroud (واحة الشرود)”, there’s a cool mixer of Sitar (is that a sitar? I think it’s a sitar) and raging drums and guitars.

The mid-paced “Ana’a Al-Majarra (عناء المجرة)” keeps your attention with its killer riff structure and a wild solo. Wailing and Madness doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and the real surprises here are the Middle Eastern instruments, but songs like “Dana’at Al-Amr (دناءة الأمر)” are only elevated by the Middle Eastern melodies that poke through. Otherwise, this is just a good Black Metal album.

“Washma Ramad (وشم رماد)” is a cool Dimmu Borgir throwback track that brings to mind For Al Tid and Stormblast vibes. It’s got a crazy sitar solo against this sort of standard Black Metal track, the vocals are gravel and graveyard dirt, and work really well against the backdrop of blasting and wailing guitar work.

“Alhan Sarmadeyah (ألحان سرمدية)” sees the production drop a bit more. There’s literally no bass on Wailing and Madness, Metallica’s …And Justice for All has more bass presence than this. Which is kind of disappointing because without that low end, everything is sort of abrasive. “Hebr Al-Akwan (حبر الأكون)” has some killer ideas floating around in there. The mid-paced aspect of the track is suitably menacing, creating a new level of gravitas, but after a while it starts grating on the ears.

Final track has some badass acoustic work around the two-minute mark “Shorfat Al-Fana’a (شرفة الفناء)” is one that could’ve been on Deathcrush. Primitive riffing and thunderous drums keep things interesting but the song ultimately ends too quickly without using its full potential.

At the end of the day, I’m left with a good Black Metal album with Middle Eastern melodies. It could be great if there were more bass and a bit more oomph. If you are a fan of Melechesh and Al Nimrood, you’ll probably love this. So go get this if you want.

In truth though, when you get to that level of pepper-induced pain, real flavor kind of takes a back seat. The term “straight gas, no brakes” could appropriately be applied, not only for the all-out dedication to oral punishment, but because one of the few flavor profiles attached to little bastards like these is often “ethanol-like.” So… gas. On the other hand, if you still want the surface-level capsaicin rush, but want more depth of flavor, there’s no shortage of options available. There’s the beautiful, rich earth tones of a poblano or hatch chili, or in the case of the humble (if misunderstood) habanero, a bright, fruity backbone that pairs delightfully with white wine, fruit or white meats, but with plenty of kick to still reach down your pants and give you a little thrill. Consensually.

The point is, whatever flavor profile you’re looking to fit, whatever personal tastes you may have or experience you want to partake in, peppers have no shortage of options available to get you where you wanna go.

Portugal’s Gaerea, for their part, are certainly no stranger to the art of delivering a highly impactful experience. Their emotionally-driven, cathartic blend of extreme music has certainly never lacked in the way of “spice,” but through the course of their career, the band has steadily worked their way down from billion-scoville levels of blistering attack, to more modest, palatable levels of aggression, coming fully to a head in he form of 2024’s Coma, an album that saw the band at their relatively-most-accessible, while still providing no shortage of furious, blast-beaten and blackened fury.

It also marked the first album with founding member and longtime lead guitarist Alpha (Guilherme Henriques) taking over vocal duties from original vocalist, Ruben Freitas. While Freitas’ tortured, impassioned bellows were certainly chills-inducing and every bit fitting of the band’s sound, Alpha proved he not only could match Freitas’ intensity, but also expand the band’s range by incorporating the occasional stretch of clean vocals and whispered accents that only made the band’s penchant for atmosphere all the more potent. The increased emphasis on space and melody only heightened the drama of their work, effectively making the highs and lows of the album all the more devastating in its delivery, and perhaps more importantly, did so in a way that never betrayed what has always made Gaerea such a unique and recognizable entity.

With Loss (the band’s first effort with Century Media), Gaerea continues to push its own boundaries to create a more complex and, at least to these ears, a more impressive product. While never ones to shy away from emotional themes and overtones, tracks like “Submerged,” “Phoenix” and “Cyclone” showcase the band leaning even further into what’s possible with the use of more intricate and sophisticated vocal techniques (including a not unwelcome increase in really pretty and heartfelt cleans, particularly on the excellent “Cyclone”), and the addition of even more varied and interesting musical influences – the snapping break of “Submerged” and lofi intermission “LBRNTH” are equal parts unexpected and exceptionally appropriate, providing the sort of sudden-turn palate cleansers amongst the chaos that both shock the system and lend even further to the overall experience of listening to this album.

And that’s all before we get the album’s breathtaking closer “Stardust,” which takes the album’s overall theme of loss and grieving to its crushing conclusion. Imagine if Lorna Shore decided to re-record their landmark “Pain Remains” trilogy, but with a guest collaboration from Sleep Token both vocally and musically – that should give you at least an idea of the kind of soul, intensity, and devastation poured into this track, making for one of this band’s true crowning achievements in their already impressive career.

Before anyone gets put off by the mention of the (confusingly) divisive Sleep Token, or merely pointing out the uptick in clean vocals on this album, make no mistake that the band is still just as capable of delivering violence at a level many bands can only aspire to. “Hellbound” and “Uncontrolled” each unleash the band’s blasting fury in spades, putting aggression at the forefront while still providing balance with moments of calm and stillness. Hell, it’s not even as if the previously mentioned tracks that do flirt more with the lighter, more experimental side of their sound hardly go without the devastating outbursts that make up such a signature part of the band’s identity; they just have a little more under the hood to offer than previous iterations of the band fully provided. If a song like “Phoenix” can’t get your juices flowing, particularly with its defiant message of self-reliance and perseverance through trial and tribulation, then like… I don’t really know what to tell you, man? Shit makes me want to run through a wall, brick or otherwise.

Loss, at its essence, feels like a band truly letting their guard down and allowing their most authentic form to fully bloom. The pressure to be as visceral, to be as brutal and overwhelming as a Trinidad Scorpion chile, no longer seems to be holding this band hostage. The result is a far more enjoyable and complex flavor profile that you’ll remember for more pleasant reasons than just obliterating your taste buds. There’s a range of emotion and depth of influence on display that encourages you to come back again and again to find new, subtle notes and details. It’s an experience that can still bring you to tears, but also fill you with pure joy and self-assured strength. This is Gaerea, so far anyway, at its most impactful, and I commend the band for bringing all these elements together in such a cohesive, intoxicating blend. Loss is a monumental achievement for this band, one that we should all experience.

There’s nothing better than a solid banger Black Metal album, and that’s what Necrofier has unleashed upon the world this time around. It’s safe to say I’ve never heard them before, so as usual, I’m just dropped into the fray and forced to fend for myself. I’m comfortable with it by now.

This is a long album. Twelve tracks in 57:53 minutes. If the album sucked, it would be a slog to get through; fortunately, it doesn’t suck, so the length is quite all right, not to mention the musical acrobatics that these crazy Texans are demonstrating.

“Fires of the Apocalypse, Light My Path I” bursts out with reckless intensity, sounding a bit Enthroned-ish… Skullthrone of Satan era… if you know, you know. “Fires of the Apocalypse, Light My Path II” blasts like there’s no tomorrow, going for a Nightside Eclipse/ Defending the Throne of Evil vibe that works perfectly.

“Fires of the Apocalypse, Light My Path III” follows up with some Gorgoroth intensity, the fantastic production making everything hit hard and fast as a Texas rattlesnake. The cascades of blast beats fall on your head like steel rain.

There are layers to Transcend Into Oblivion. “Behold, the Birth of Ascension” is an ethereal track with spare piano and some fucking ominous atmospheric melodies that creep into the mix later on. “Servants of Darkness, Guide My Way I” begins with some savage blasting before it slows down for a few beats, then ramps up the attack some more. “Servants of Darkness, Guide My Way II” is a blast furnace of fury and blasting drums… until the four-minute mark, and it turns into a hypnotic acoustic track in the blink of an eye.

“Servants of Darkness, Guide My Way III” fires its afterburners and doesn’t let up, that is, until the utterly mesmerizing “Mystical Creation of Enlightenment” sounds very Ulver-ish, circa Kveldssanger and Bergtatt.

“Horns of Destruction, Lift My Blade I” gets a bit raw and dirty, more of a Carpathian Forest Defending the Throne of Evil vibe, even Morbid Fascination of Death. “Horns of Destruction, Lift My Blade II” is a bit of a Black Thrasher with a sick as fuck riff that twists its way throughout the song, a musical earworm if I might say so.

“Horns of Destruction, Lift My Blade III” plows along with more crazy drum patterns than you can shake a tree at. It’s a bit mid-paced, in between enormous bursts of speed, of course. It gets quite spastic towards the track’s end, echoing some Cradle of Filth from Cruelty and the Beast.

“Toward the Necrofier” is a sonic hellscape. Filled with the corpses of unsuspecting listeners. It’s hauntingly beautiful and savage at the same time; a complex marriage of searing Black Metal and Industrial Black Metal.

I suppose you could say that the third time is the charm because this is a killer album, yet another band to go back and raid their back catalog. So if you like Carpathian Forest, Cradle of Filth, and Enthroned, then you should be tripping over yourself to get it. Hurry up!

As I stated in my review of Old Old Death, Tulus and Khold are/were essentially interchangeable in terms of sound and style; simple, cold, riff driven Norweigian black metal, mostly mid-paced, methodical, and free from fluff or other distracting elements.

But some research tells me that Tulus, both before and after reunitng did indeed dabble with some more experimental elements, appearing to leave the simple groovier riffs to the Khold side of the house. And while I didn’t hear those elements on Old Old Death, it appears they are resurfacing on Morbid Desires.

That’s not to say this is some sort of avant-garde black metal, but it certainly sounds more adventurous than I recall Old Old Death being, which was admittedly my only exposure to Tulus at the time.

Morbid Desires certainly still leans into that groovy Dark Throne/ Khold stomp for the most part (“Skabb”, “Kistemed”, raucous “Vanvidd”, “Skauånd”), but there are definitely a few more things thrown in here; the Ulver debut/Garm-ish styled vocals and the flamenco injection of opener “Salme II”, the rock ‘n’ roll/heavy metal styled “Tulus”, the folk rollick of “Hedengangen”, which could be Finntroll without the moutharp and humpa elements, the surprisingly introspective and moody “Fossegrimens Vakt” and the stoner metal-y, 8 minute closer “Sabbat”, and its trippy harmonica section.

But I can’t say that’s why I want to listen to Tulus. And the same reason I DID want to listen to Khold– those cold, hard repetitive riffs, and those moments that make Morbid Desires worth listening to, as they focus on riffs, nothing more.

Eight songs in 42 minutes, “Hun” opens the album, and at under three minutes, it is the shortest song on the album. Starting with some soft guitar work, the music bursts forward at the one-minute mark. Keep those headphones lower than normal at this point. The cold guitar riffing is blistering, and it is played with emotive tendencies. You can play brutal cold music, but still have it played with emotion. Meshuggah comes to mind re: that aspect of cold and calculated songs still played with emotion.

Bizarrekult’s black metal never truly gets into blast beat territory, but this song hammers home the metal and never lets up until “Blikket hennes” is next, but that does not really happen right away. The song starts with a super-fast part, then slows down with some bass guitar thumping and black metal vocal screaming. These slower moments allow the listener to catch their breath. Then the speed returns until the two-minute moment with the atmospheric slowdown, and I really dig the double bass moments, as they cut through the ambience. This is where those Celtic Frost moments enter. Think the sounds of Monotheist, with those cold moments, that conjure up emotions. This moment does that quite excellently. I am glad these moments stay the course for quite some time, allowing a guitar solo to come right in, along with the goth-like spoken vocal moments. Terrific and a little folksy as well. I love this song.

“Drøm” has a mesmerizing opening guitar riff and drum pattern. Oft-kilter, yet it works. This pounding technique slows down, then speeds up again. It is quite hypnotic, almost a little like a metronome. The black metal riffage is excellent and catchy. It can be hard to do with black metal, but Bizarrekult are unafraid to stick with a catchy riff, and this allows that riff to become more memorable. More pained vocals return on the slower section as the drums slow down and allow more atmosphere. Spoken word vocals are whispered as if being cast from a soft billow of fog. It is evident that the band has worked quite hard to increase the emotion and atmosphere on their third album.

“Tomhet” ends the song. Remember how the album opened? Well, this is how the end song begins. Soft and quiet guitars before the raging black metal comes bursting through our eardrums at the one-minute mark. Excellent mid-paced double bass drum action and vocals to make your ears bleed. The song further slows with ambience and spoken word vocals. This moment comes across as bluesy with the drums, and all is played as if you were in a lounge club. Soft, emotionally crafted, and yes the raging black metal returns, for a slight moment. The song further slows down, ending in atmospherics.

Alt som finnes is Bizarrekult’s most expansive release to date. From the increased atmospherics to the ambience and spoken word vocal tones, there is beauty in their harshness. The harsher black metal moments are expertly crafted and mixed in with all the other moments, continuing to make the band stand out from the heap of black metal bands that keep getting vomited forth, day in and day out.

The production is crisp, clean, and sounds great. The album cover looks to have some jawa’s on there, from Star Wars, conjuring their next prank. Bizarrekult continues to get better and better – excellent album!

 Secondly, this is such a nuanced, varied, and deep album that reviewing it and doing it justice proved challenging. I’m certain I failed anyway. So here we are. I’ve been on a bit of a black metal kick, so I wanted to see what the still original-ish lineup was up to.

At 55 minutes in length (another reviewing challenge for my ADHD), The Skies That Turn Black, while certainly falling under the black metal umbrella, is far more than that. As with all of the bands’ post-Windir discography, it sheds the skin of the more simple viking-y, pagan throes of those albums and delivers an incredibly ambitious, creative, but melancholic and unpredictable album that lines up alongside other Norwegian luminaries like Enslaved, Borknagar, Shining, Arcturus, Ulver, Tulus, Dark Throne, Fleurety, and such. Though not fully ‘avant-garde’.

There is soooo much going on here. Every single track offers a different and unexpected journey. Some good, some OK, some brilliant. Early on, there is the majestic morose opening track, “From These Woods”, which covers all of black metal sub-genres, and the simple stomp of the title track (a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne), with a main riff that could be a Khold or Tulus song, and the stern, straight-up black thrash of “A Second Death”.

Then the album starts to really mix things up; we get the instrumental “Kraken” (dedicated to the band’s first music teacher), then Agnete Kjølsrud, of Djerv ( though you may recall her as the female vocalist on Dimmu Borgir‘s “Gateways”), croons and howls her way through the sultry, darkwave goth rock of “Loving the Dead”, and the short steady march of “Build and Destroy” again recalls Khold-ish, cold, simplicity but with a few added psychdelic keys.

In the album’s back third, “Chaos” is my favorite track with its soaring chorus and keys, while “Smile of Hate” has a really nice solo and piano usage, and “Echoes of Life” is a somber, clean-sung ballad that fits the band’s history, but brings the album down a bit before closer “The Earth Rumbles” brings it home with a cathcy black ‘n’ roll canter and 70s organs.

The Skies Turns Black takes a lot of listens to fully grasp, and I’m not 100% I’m there yet, despite my tardiness in this review and the multiple listens it took to put words to paper (screen?). But you should certainly undertake this layered and sometimes brilliant album.

Yep, so I’m not going to talk about Snorre and guitarist/bassist General Gribbsphiiser recently making news after taking a stroll in the frozen wasteland of Norway and ‘getting lost’. Good publicity. That’s all.

Let’s talk about the music, that’s what you’re here for, right? Overall, it’s some stellar Black Metal in the vein of Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, and even some Thorns influences. Add to that guest spots by Hoest (Taake) and Silenoz (Dimmu Borgir), you know… lending star power to the proceedings.

Right away, there’s “Ritual Dogs” dumping an ice bucket over your head with some of the coldest riffs conceived in the icy cauldron of Norwegian Black Metal. It’s an unrelenting riptide that catches you and drags you out into the ocean of brutality. “Wildkatze” keeps it mid-paced but no less vicious in delivery. There’s so much reverb on General Gribbsphiiser’s vocals that he sounds like he’s singing in an ice crevasse, and it’s absolutely sublime. I love Black Metal, that is, this raw, immense creature that eclipses the sun, turning the world black.

“Huldergeist” grabs you by the throat with a prime Old Man’s Child/ Dimmu Borgir influences and some absolutely unnerving shrieking vocals. If you put yourself between The Pagan Prosperity and Stormblast, you’ll be in the right ballpark. The end has some killer female vocals to boot.

“Hexen Herjer” is a grimy, pitch-black heart beating with pure evil. The mid-paced track is one of my favorites from Hulder’s Ritual. At the 4:44 mark, the whole track dissolves into an evil white noise, the drums acting like a deranged clock ticking towards Doomsday.

“Warlok” is another mid-paced steamroller of a track. There’s a pervasive, serpentine riff that lives in the background. The female vocals show up briefly before being absorbed into the fray. This song doesn’t rush itself; it’s methodical and precise, pacing beats you senseless.

“Rathkings” blasts forth with Gorgoroth-level intensity. The vocals are like the death cry of a Dragur. The music sweeps you up in the arms of steel and palpable darkness. These guys are on fire here, and I’m already looking forward to album number five (no rush).

To say I’m enamored with Slagmaur is an understatement; I love this album. It kicks back to those halcyon days of early brutality and raw extremity. With a killer album cover with cute as fuck sheep on it and Snorre Ruch with his awe-inspiring production… it all goes towards this unholy release being unleashed. Considering that their last full-length came out in 2017, I guess the time was right for a new album.

At the end of the day, Slagmaur have returned after a nine-year hiatus from wherever they were to release a fiery Black Metal album: mission accomplished. If you love Old Man’s Child, Dimmu Borgir, and Emperor, then you already know I’m going to recommend this to you. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

One such band and release is Sweden’s Nazghor, a band comprised of various veterans from the Swedish metal scene, such as Entrails, Morphetik, Cryonic, Hyperion, and A World Ablaze is the band’s 8th album, since forming in 2013. Prolific is an understatement.

As you’d expect from this label and set of band members, this is Swedish black metal harkening back to that 90s/early 2000s era (Dissection, Watain, Dark Funeral, Marduk, Setherial, Lord Belial, etc) and it’s done really, really well. It’s frosty, yet melodic, has some light keyboards here and there (i.e., “The Infallible God”, “The Black Light of the Spectral Keeper”, “Bathe in Ashes”),  though certainly not full-on symphonic black metal, and is chock full of killer riffs, and has an organic, classic, but nice, razor-sharp production.

The whole album is full of classic Swedish melodic black metal moments from the blistering opener “Cursed and Unblessed”, to the fiercely melodic gallop of personal favorite “Day of Sepulcral”, the more moody and restrained “Within Crimson Kingdom”, and the stern march of “Bathe in Ashes”, and atmospheric, lengthy closer “A Once Starless Oath”.

Since reactivating Solistitium Records’ releases have been a bit hit and miss for me, but all certainly recalling thier early catalog, sticking with solid black metal with bands like Nøkk, Ulvehyrde, Aldheorte, and Nordlys, and even a Suffering Souls reissue, but so far this has been my favorite. But that is, until they drop the new Vallendusk album later this year.

Now, I did listen to Echoes of Primordial Gnosis to be able to compare Land of Darkness, Echoes, and this album, and it appears on Echoes, Soulreaper went in a very slight tangent, while still certainly 90s black metal, it was a bit warmer, and a little more experimental and progressive- just barely.

But on Unveiled Nightsky, as if you couldn’t tell from the album title, song titles like “Born of Winter’s Breath”,  and “Omen of the Cosmic Order”,  as well as the return to the blue Emperor hues of the artwork from Land of Darkness and 2019s Realm of the Bleeding Shadows, Unveiled Nightsky is a return to the more frosty, cosmic style of 90s black metal they have perfected on prior efforts.

The recipe is simple and clear on the influences: Emperor, Dissection, Gates of Ishtar, Unanimated, Sacramentum, Catamenia, etc. Melodic, frosty tremolo-picked riffs with howled vocals and a slight layer of keyboards, though certainly not full-on symphonic black metal.

The Dissection and maybe Dark Funeral (lite) element is particularly strong here, as heard on the second track “Omen of the Cosmic Order”, but all the songs certainly have plenty of hooky, melodic riffs. Especially “Nurtured by the Night”, “Unveiled Nightsky”, “Descent into Hades’ Embrace”, and more restrained, somber “Echoes of a Fallen Crown”. Closer “Drifting into the Depths of Oblivion” ends the album with a gorgeous violin/cello instrumental, an element I’d like to hear more of injected fully into other songs.

But at 30 minutes (28 minutes minus the outro), this feels a little like a long EP, rather than a fully fleshed-out album, and many of the songs just seem to end rather than finish with any sort of climax or closure. Still, what riffs there are are still really good, and Soulreaper has absolutely grasped the genre by the horns, and while very, very productive, I’d like to see him focus a little more on quality, not quantity, as there is something pretty special lurking here.

For over a decade now, Denmark’s Møl has been a steady force in the ever-growing work of Shoegaze-driven Black Metal, borrowing certainly from the likes of genre innovators like Cult of Luna and Deafheaven, though perhaps always more willing to reach more for the eccentricities of Converge’s melodic leanings of Rolo Tomassi. But as impressive as earlier releases certainly were, there was a sense that there was something more the band had left to prove.

Where 2018’s Jord (their first full-length) felt like a rock-solid Blackgaze record reminiscent of (and for my tastes, preferred to) Ghost Bath or ColdWorld, 2021’s Diorama felt like a band starting to forge their own path – adding more progressive and “post” elements to their sound in ways that felt more self-assured and authentic. Still, there were moments on that record where you could have said “ok, this is cool, but it’s just Deafheaven, right?” You’d need look no further than the earworm, but certainly derivative main melody of the opening track “Fraktur” to find one of many shining examples.

But as artists are (should be) wont to do, it seems Møl continued to evolve behind the scenes, not content to rest on their laurels until they developed a sound that, definitively, was their own. With DREAMCRUSH, it seems the band has not only achieved that, but has elevated their game to heights that should, deservedly, capture the attention of every extreme music fan on the planet. It’s a fucking masterpiece.

The thing that’s immediately noticeable about Dreamcrush is just how easy an album it is to listen to. From production and mastering, to the song structures and overall tone of the record, this is an album that begs prolonged listening sessions. There is, undoubtedly, a certain sector of the metal world that will sneer at this album’s accessibility, but I cannot fathom being turned off by a recording that sounds as lush and vibrant as this. From the opening crescendo of “DREAM,” which indeed sounds like the warming up of a pit orchestra at the beginning of some opera or grand stage performance, you know immediately that this is going to be something special, and after a bright, airy guitar intro introduces the band, you are very suddenly thrown right into the album in earnest, marked by vocalist Kim Song Sternkopf first of many higher-pitched screams and a storm of distorted guitars. But what really grabs you is the clean vocal section, accentuated by very pretty synth (or maybe it’s guitar, hard to say) hits that match the vocal melody. It is so simple, and yet so effective, showcasing a newer side to the band’s sound that is as welcome as it is intoxicating, marking a sense of balance that proves to be the hallmark of this entire album.

And indeed, “Sma Forlis” nails home the point, hitting first with a hard-hitting staccato delivery of fierce guitars, drums, and Sternkopf’s sneering vocal attack that borrows as much from early-2000s Metalcore as it does the more Blackened stylings we’re used to from the band. But before you think we’re going full-on blitzkrieg, the band pulls back into another brilliant clean section that lands like an eye to a category 5 hurricane – somewhat disorienting, but altogether welcome and strangely beautiful. Much like a hurricane, however, the brief respite only serves to make the impact of the back half of the storm hit all the more devastatingly, and at an economical 3 minutes 45 seconds, the band proves they’re capable of getting a lot done in a relatively small package.

The condensed delivery of the songs does serve the band really well on this album, as well. If there’s one criticism I’ll buy in a lot of Blackgaze/Atmospheric Black Metal, it’s the susceptibility to become over-bloated, or providing SO much space that the real impact of the songs is diminished. Not so much here, as Møl get right to the point on virtually every track, with standout singles “Young” and “Garland” each coming in well under the 4-minute mark (in fact, closer “CRUSH” is the only track to eclipse 5 minutes), and yet the band still has no trouble taking you on a journey with each and every effort. “Young” hits with such an uplifting, hopeful flair that I can’t help but think of a band like Astronoid as an apt comparison, even including one of the band’s rare instances of a really nice, if simple and effective guitar solo. But it’s the chorus’s main riff that really grabs your attention, and paired to the rumbling double bass attack of the verses, once again serves the duality of the album so beautifully.

Sternkopf’s impassioned vocal performance is once again a real highlight of this album, but this track, along with standouts like “A Former Blueprint” and “Mimic” proves that the work of Nikolai Hansen and Sigurd Kehlet absolutely cannot be ignored, pulling influences not just from the usual suspects, but also culling from places you may not expect. The verse guitars on “Garland” (which is, so far, my favorite song of a young 2026), as well as the opening riff of “Dissonance,” could very easily be mistaken for something recorded by Chevelle, and god damn if both aren’t effective in the context of these tracks.

What impresses me most is that everything on DREAMCRUSH seems so intentional and detail-driven. No part of this record is made without consideration of every other element put to recording, and the end result is an album that, despite its wide net of influences, feels wholly cohesive and complete. For the first time in Møl’s career, I don’t feel myself wanting more from the band. This feels very much like the band was meant to be all along, and I’m now just thrilled to see what the band is able to do with this newfound confidence and ability moving forward. Whether you’re already acquainted with the band or this is your first foray, I BEG of you to give DREAMCRUSH a listen. For me, it’s an instant classic, and perhaps even a new benchmark for the genre. Insane performance.

“Five Fifths Awaken” opens the album, and at under three minutes, starts with an atmospheric intro of sorts. The bludgeoning music, mostly a doomy mid-paced crawl, showcases how heavy this band is. There are some pained and anguished types of vocals erupting, and by and large, this is an interesting way to open an album. It does not feel like a real first song to open an album with.

Lots of instrumentation with drum rolls galore. But it works in conjunction with the title track, which is next. Honestly, since it goes right into the title track, the opener should have just been merged with the title track. The same mid-paced heaviness is there, then right into a fast part with vocalist/guitarist Ciarán Ó Críodáin having more of a blackened death metal rasp, then straight gutturals. For the material and the band’s sound, I do feel his vocal tones are effective. He does come across as having a similar style to the late great Quorthon (RIP) of Bathory fame. Think Under the Sign of the Black Mark, for that type of vocal vibe. Boban Bubnjar entered the band in 2022 on drums, and he pounds the hell outta the drums, like I pound the hell outta pints of Guinness. The rest of the band, bassist Hick O Aodha and guitarist Jason Keane, also lend vocals to this brutal affair. The band’s sound has similarities to Incantation, Portal, and Dead Congregation. I find the band having quite a menacing and evil sound. Like they mean business. So far so good and things only get better…

“Scythe of Saturn” opens with an excellent blackened death metal riff that goes right for the jugular with the blast. There is a bit of noisiness to their sound. It can be a lot to listen to, but I like the ferociousness the band displays. The monster blasting then gets into a galloping mid-paced moment, and that bass guitar is prominent, sounding like early Bathory, in some parts. Squealing guitar solos ignite as the song slows down, and these slower moments are where Coscradh shine best. Excellent Bathory-inspired vocals are all over this sucker as this pounding, mid-paced heaviness steamrolls right through your neighborhood. More squealing guitar moments, over the blast, with a variety of vocal tones. This song is evil, albeit chaotic at times.

“Opening the Gates to Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra” ends the album at over 9 minutes, the longest song on here. There are a lot of lyrics on this song, a lot!! Demonic, devilish, and creative. The variety of vocal tones, pain, and anguished screams makes you feel as if the vocalist is experiencing hell himself. Fast, noisy blasting, then the mid-paced moment takes over, and the heaviness is apparent, then off to the races. About halfway through, the slow doomy moments come in with berating vocals and cool phase shifter guitar effects. As the song trails off in atmospherics, it ties in to how the album starts. I like when bands do this.

Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld is forged with hate, violence, darkness, blasphemy, and evil. Coscradh knows how to conjure up emotions within the listener with their style of extreme music. At times, the noisiness gets a bit much. When they blast – it is on full display, and it’s a cacophony of chaos. I do like the more brutal elements, but sometimes less is more. The power the band exudes on the slower/mid-paced and doomier moments is far more impactful, heavier, and the production and mix are much stronger during those parts.

Regardless of that, one of the things I really appreciate about this band is that they create pure dark death metal. It’s refreshing to hear this. Yes, there are nods to the band of yore, who used to do this/still do this style, yet the band injects their own flair, and that is in the evilness department. Damn good!

I never covered the original here, as I covered it for a different webzine at the time, but it made my year-end list for 2010, and still stands as my favorite Rotting Christ album, even with four albums released since then. They found that perfect balance between the hellenic, epic orchestration and burly but melodic black metal that they were starting to deliver a few albums earlier with the likes of Thegonia and Santos Diavalos.

But on Aealo, it all came together for a truly classic album (in my humble opiono of course), and now it’s been redone from the ground up, and like Sigh’s effort, it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. Production was never an issue in 2010, and on the original, and the additional horns, choirs, and keys were, back then, still pretty fucking lush and epic.

So how do they sound now? Well, it’s even bigger, brasher, and even more epic as Themis and Sakis, tuned everything up to 11, especially the hellenic, ethnic elements that were already pretty heavily featured. Right out of the gate, the title track (which had one of my favorite song openings ever) still has some downright fucking rousing female choirs, now with a few more layers and key changes.

Chunky second track “Eon Aenaos” also has a little more heft and girth, along with various degrees of background layers and synths, which just give the song a whole lot more depth. And that’s sort of how the whole album feels; there’s definitely more going on, certainly when you listen with headphones, and the overall sound is definitely clearer and more polished. But the original had a little more primal, raw energy.

“Δαίμονων βρωσης”, as it did 16 years ago, blends the more melodic, but moody riffage of A Dead Poem or Triarchy of The Lost Lovers, with some dramatic bombast, and now that bombast is just clearer and much more present. Other standout tracks from the original album are still of course standouts, such as the stern militant stomp of “Noctis Era”, now with more chants and choirs, the jaunty duo of “Dub-saĝ-ta-ke” as well as “Fire, Death and Fear”, and fierce closer “Santa Muerte”. All still killer tracks, just with a little more gloss and oomph.

The guest appearances from the original (Primordial’s Alan Nemtheanga on “Thou Art Lord”, Diamanda Galás on the cover of her “Orders from the Dead”)  reappear long with the new sound and artwork, which makes this at least worth a listen if you enjoyed the original.

And you have to respect the fact that they are leaning into the Game of Thrones thing on their new EP. 6 years after the show has ended, that’s really striking while the iron is hot.

I keed, of course, there are still bands doing the Lord of the Rings stuff, so whatever floats your boat, and who know we may finally get George RR Martin’s new book, before I die. But until then, here is a 5-song EP with song titles like “Mad King”, “Blackfyre”, and “Harrenhal”, but above the GoT themes, there isn’t much else going on here beyond some standard, slightly melodic US black metal.

Shrill, frosty guitars, delivering tremolo-picked riffs over a largely bassless low end and shrieking vocals with a few background bellows is the order of the day, so fans of Dark Funeral et al might dig this. But it’s not until the third song on the EP, “Reign Of Fire”, that anything remotely gets me interested, as it’s pretty standard, OK, not great stuff.

“Reign of Fire” has a solid, fierce, more melodic main riff and some militant and moody mid-paced parts, then the EPs best track, “Blackfyre” has a solid, majestic opening gallop and a few keyboards lingering in the background, which make it another solid track before the closer “Harrenhal”, making it three in a row with a more moody, slower, 6+ minute number, befitting the nsamesake haunting location.

An OK, EP, but nothing I’ll be going back to, but I’ll certainly listen to anything the band does next- maybe a Breaking Bad themed EP?

Five tracks in 32:05 is just long enough to be a full-length, and that’s where Pandemonium of Egregores lurks, in these darkened winter shadows where you think you’re safe; it’s an unsettling album, like the strange geometry in Lovecraft’s Dreams in the Witch House.

Beginning with the “Overture”, the beast is let loose with the True Mayhem-ish “Shadows over the Valley”. Meyhnach’s raspy howl echoes the Wolf’s Lair Abyss and Grand Declaration of War era of True Mayhem to a T. There’s this cool Punky riff in the chorus that just kicks against the blitzkrieg drums and creates all sorts of havoc.

Not to be outdone, “Fifty Winters” is hands down my favorite track on Pandemonium of Egregores. Its suitably frozen delivery had ice falling from my phone in little razor-sharp riffs. It almost has a bit of a Blackbraid aggression to it (especially their “ Wardrums at Dawn on the Day of My Death” from Blackbraid III).

As I said, this is more of a melodious approach than on Black Metal Cult. That’s not saying that they went total Funeral Doom or wacky shit like that; I’m saying that Mütiilation gives the songs time to breathe before throttling you with cascades of blast beats. The title track is where they lay their souls bare, so to speak. For almost eight minutes (7:54 to be exact), you’re subjected to the aural equivalent of the planet cracking in half.

For a band that has been in existence since 1992, Mütiilation have consistently released the best that France has to offer, starting with 1995’s Vampires of Black Imperial Blood (my favorite album). The production is spectacular, as is to be expected, although the bass could have been bumped up a notch to bring it forward a tad.

Final track “Hashischin Cage” moves deftly between blasting and mid-paced. A great closer to this solid release. If you love Deathspell Omega or the True Mayhem, then Pandemonium of Egregores is the album that will get you through the winter. Picking this album up will make you immortal!

Now, I have not heard 2021’s Last Contact, but it appears co-founder Christophor Grimes’ time in fellow Chicagoan war metalers Blood Of the Wolf since 2018 has rubbed off, as Withering Soul is much more abrasive and intense than I recall.

Still largely black metal and certainly strains of symphonic black metal are there, with keyboards still scattered generously around the material, but this is less Dimmu Borgir-ish than the first two albums, and leans a little harder into the black/death Blood of the Wolf  (i.e. “The Monolith Embodied”, “Gallery of the End”) sound mixed with Grime’s early Veneficum (one of the USA’s early entries into symphonic black metal) days.

It results in an excellent album from the tail end of 2025, with more than a few highlights or standouts, especially when the band gets a little more aggressive as heard on “Attrition Horizon”, searingly melodic personal favorites “Grievance Eludes the Light” and “Gallery of the End”, or the 7-minute “Trajectory”.

The album ends on a nice, beefier, more militant number in “Burden of the Valiant”, and the album has been a nice reminder of a band I had forgotten about, but is certainly back on my radar again now.